Cloud-based sharing of files and other objects is a boon to those who collaborate on ideas and projects. Advances in computing capabilities (e.g., high-power client devices) and networking (e.g., high-speed, low latency communication) has facilitated dynamic exchange of ideas, even when working on the same documents or objects. In some environments two or more collaborators can work on the same objects at the same time. When two or more collaborators work on the same document at the same time, it is possible that the changes that two collaborator make each pertains to a different part of the shared document, and no conflicts arise. It is also possible that changes made by two or more simultaneously collaborating users include changes to the same parts of a shared document. In such situations, conflicts (e.g., editing conflicts) can arise. Legacy techniques to aid in conflict resolution assume that all simultaneously collaborating users use the same editing tool (e.g., Microsoft Word). In the process of conflict resolution, one of the simultaneously collaborating users would rely on the conflict resolution helpers (e.g., redline revisions tool) available from the editing tool. Unfortunately, it often happens that the simultaneously collaborating users use different editing tools (e.g., one user uses Microsoft Word, another user uses OpenOffice, another uses Lotus Notes, another user uses VI or eMacs, etc.). It also happens that simultaneously collaborating users use different editing tools at different times (e.g., while editing from a Windows platform, or while editing from a Linux platform, etc.), and/or when editing different types of documents. Legacy collaboration tools are unable to determine what tools should be used by which users at which times so as to facilitate resolution of conflicts that are introduced by simultaneously collaborating users.
What is needed is a technique or techniques to improve over legacy approaches.